Genes play a crucial role in human brain development and human behaviour. Any individual interested in trying to make sense of the complex factors influencing human thought and behaviour should have at least a basic understanding of how genes and environment interact. The nature– nurture debate has raged for many years. In simple terms, the debate concerns the extent to which specific aspects of behaviour arise as a consequence of inheritance (nature) or the environment (nurture). Aristotle first proposed, and John Locke later popularised, the view of the child’s mind as a ‘blank slate’, or tabula rasa, shaped solely by experience.
nature–nurture debate, DNA, genotype, environment, epigenomes
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